HP, In A Huge Slap At Windows 8, Plans To Release A High-End Android Tablet

The world's biggest PC maker, HP, is ready to abandon Microsoft's Windows for its mobile computing efforts, Taylor Wimberly at ReadWrite reports.

Wimberly says HP has been working on a high-end Android-based tablet since before last Thanksgiving.

The timing is important. Microsoft's tablet-friendly operating system Windows 8 came out at the end of October, and has been available for testing for over a year. HP must have thoroughly evaluated Windows 8 and Android and decided Windows 8 wasn't good enough.

What's more, Wimberly says HP is exploring making a phone, and that phone would also be based on Android, not Windows Phone software.

If this happens, it will be more symbolic than anything else, initially. HP will still make a lot of traditional PCs running Windows software. And HP has struggled in the mobile, so it's not like an HP tablet or smartphone is a guaranteed success.

Plus, HP is making a couple of Windows 8 tablets right now. So, it hasn't totally given up on Windows 8.

However, if HP's Android tablet is a success. And if somehow its phone is a success, watch out. Microsoft will lose one of its biggest partners.